Welcome to 3rd Grade!

So today was a day of firsts for me - all of which were very exciting and only some of which were also very nerve-wracking.
First of all, I had my first day of school with my field placement class and my new mentor teacher for my Block 3 classes. As much as I wanted to stay in the fetal position at 6 am this morning, the feeling that I would be sick due to nerves stirred me and up I got! On my way to the school - which is sort of out in the middle of Nowheresville - a flood of anxious thoughts were buzzing through my mind : Am I going the right way? Am I going to be late? What are these kids going to think of me? What am I getting myself into?  ... and for once (another first), I didn't feel like listening to music.

In case you don't know me, you must learn this first and foremost (a first for you, let's say): music is EVERYTHING in my life. I live, breathe and if I could, I would eat it, too (and I like eating - that's another thing you can learn, but I'll talk about it later). I listen to it in the shower, when I wake up, while I'm cooking, when I do homework, when I workout - you name it. So me specifically choosing to not listen to music is kind of a big deal. Yeah ... I was definitely a little scared. :-)

But, of course, there was nothing to be worried about. As soon as I walked in the door to see the class eating some very good-smelling chicken biscuits, the teacher greeted me with a cheerful "Welcome!" which sounded a little muddled between bites of his own chicken biscuit! He immediately calmed my butterflies and made me feel at ease.

And then came my next "firsts"- two at once this time: "Hi class, this is Mrs. Hitchcock."

Oh my. Who???
Not only was my last name different (made even more apparent because I was wearing a nametag bearing my maiden name ... confusing much?), but what was this "Mrs." business? Hmmm...  This whole being married thing has definitely taken some adjusting to - most of which has been fun. I'm so happy with every aspect of my life, except that I still need to hang curtains in my house ... and a couple other house-keeping issues ... but really - if that's it, then not bad, right? And just like all the other adjustments,  after about the 50th time of hearing it throughout the day, I kind of liked the sound of it. Except for the fact that it makes me sound like I'm supposed to be a full-grown adult. Yeah, right. ;-)

By the way, did I mention I was working with 3rd graders this year (aka Did you read the title of this post?)? Cuz I am! I'm super excited because I've had only a little exposure to the upper-grades in elementary school - a couple of weeks with an absolutely phenomenal class and an even more amazing teacher - but an entire semester? Ah!! Well, let's just say the first thing I learned about them is that they have some great attitude ... and I mean that in every sense of the word! There is such a range of learners, too; anywhere from a handful of special ed students being helped and those on an RTI plan (response to intervention) to those performing at very high levels and all those in between. I'm curious to see what sort of insights these students will offer me and how learning about their lives will help improve my teaching. And hopefully, I can do something for them, too!

Needless to say, I'm super-duper excited (obviously, since I saw fit to add a 'duper' in there - woah.) about this upcoming semester, and I'm looking forward to what I'm going to learn from my teacher (who, by the way, used to be a music teacher and plays in a band - right up my music-lovin' alley!!!) and my students. So, welcome to 3rd grade, anyone who's listening! And stick around for the ride because it's going to be quite a journey! Ready, set .... !